


The ring buoy

by kuron_10



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 10:24:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18754525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuron_10/pseuds/kuron_10
Summary: For Curtashi Week of Firsts: First Kiss





	The ring buoy

**Author's Note:**

> For Curtashi Week of Firsts: First Kiss

“You could stare at his butt all day, or you could simply tell him that he has a nice butt.”  
Veronica grinned when Curtis immediately knew she was talking about him and quickly turned away. He was bending downwards, not only to stretch, but also to hide his immense blush.   
“I have no idea who you are talking about.”

Veronica pushed her glasses up her nose, “You, my dear Curtis, have been staring at the captain’s butt since he came to the gym half an hour ago.”  
“I certainly did not!”

“Well, I know I did”, Veronica laughed, slowly getting up, “I mean, who wouldn’t when he is wearing his tight blue sport trackies.”  
“They are black.”  
Veronica grinned some more, “How come you know if you haven’t been looking?”

Curtis groaned loudly as Veronica waved over her shoulder, “I’m done with my workout for today, and really tired. See you tomorrow. And tell him.”  
Curtis sighed desperately, ignoring her chatting with the MFEs. He kept on stretching to end his workout. He had been lazy today, just some running and some push ups. He should have done some weight training, but he didn’t really enjoy it, especially not after a long day full of work. He was more the cardio type anyway. 

He didn’t notice the MFEs had left as well, until he suddenly heard Shiro’s voice.   
“Hmm, just the two of us left.”

Curtis sat up and looked around. Indeed, no one was here anymore. Damn it, that was surely Veronica’s doing again! She probably had made the MFEs leave so that he would be left alone with Shiro! As if he would ever tell him that he had a major crush on him. Stupid Veronica!  
“Yes”, Curtis answered and quickly tried to tame his hair. It must look awful after the workout. 

Shiro just smiled at him, “Will you leave as well now?”  
“Hu?”  
Shiro smiled again, “If you do not have to leave right now, would you help me with my workout?”  
Curtis did not hesitate. “Of course, sir. I’m free.”   
Curtis was unsure if it was such a good idea, but he would have never said no to Shiro anyway. But the fact alone that he had been staring at the captain’s backside for the last half an hour and that the workout had been exhausting, didn’t really help to calm his heart. It was beating way too fast.

“You are not here often in the evening, are you?” Shiro asked while carefully wiping the sweat off his face with a towel.

“Usually I come here in the morning”, Curtis answered, also grabbing his towel and quickly wiping his face, “But due to the meeting today I postponed it to the evening. Though I shamefully have to admit, I was not really doing my workout attentively. I was staring at the clock and wondering if I had already reached my daily goal instead of giving it all I have got.”

“I feel you”, Shiro laughed, reaching for his water bottle, “I used to work out in the morning as well, so I know the difference. But I have changed to the evening, because it helps me to fall asleep more easily if I workout late. Though usually I am alone here, so it’s kind of lonely. The crew has something better to do in the evening than spending the time at the gym.”

Curtis had no idea! He seldomly had met Shiro at the gym, but it was good to know why… maybe he should just come here in the evening – every once in a while. To keep him company. And help him. And shamelessly adore his sight in those tight trackies. 

“Would you like to do some weight lifting, sir?” Curtis asked.   
“Actually that’s a bit hard for me”, Shiro admitted, “The new arm is stronger than my human arm. So there is always an imbalance. I would like to do some sit ups though, so could you hold my ankles?”  
“Of course! And I am sorry sir, I had no idea about the arm.” Curtis immediately reached for Shiro’s ankles to keep him steady.

“Don’t worry about it”, Shiro smiled, “I think it’s weirder for others than for me. To me it feels normal. The arm does not hurt at all – which the Galra arm did, so this is really refreshing. It’s actually like a normal arm to me. I can feel hot and cold, I can hold everything. I’m just missing the upper arm.”

Curtis smiled, “That’s good to hear, sir. So you can actually do everything except weight lifting. And swimming?”

Shiro let himself fall back, before making the first sit up. He frowned. “I never considered swimming actually. That’s a good question though. I really have to give it a try.”  
“But please make sure you are not alone in the pool.”  
“I might need someone to save me, yes”, Shiro laughed, “Floaties won’t work after all with the missing upper arm.”  
“A ring buoy!”

For a moment Shiro seemed to process the mental image of himself in a ring buoy, before he let himself fall back with sheer laughter. He laughed so wholeheartedly, Curtis was sure his heart just had missed a beat. Shiro was always handsome, but seeing Shiro laugh like this was something he had never seen before. For a moment Shiro just seemed happy – and free. He was gorgeous. He looked so young – he was young, but to see such a happy carefree Shiro… it was so different to the stern captain that he usually was, the strong leader that saved the whole universe. If Curtis had not had a crush on him already, he would have fallen for Shiro in that very moment.  
Still laughing Shiro made another sit up and before Curtis knew what he was doing, he was already leaning forward. 

Their lips met. 

The feeling of Shiro’s lips against his was incredible. For a short moment he felt nothing but those soft lips. And then slowly he realized what just happened. His lips were on Shiro’s. He was kissing Shiro. He was kissing the captain!   
Shiro did not move. His lips, they were taken by surprise; he surely felt that little twitch. He was not backing down though… but then he felt that Shiro was moving slightly. Was he leaning into the kiss or just getting ready to punch him right into his face?

The nice feeling faded and panic flooded his body. Was he totally nuts?! He couldn’t just kiss the captain like this!

Curtis broke the kiss as abruptly as he had initiated it.

Shiro’s eyes flew open – he had them closed?   
“I’m… I’m so sorry”, Curtis stuttered as he struggled to get up, “I… I have no idea why I…” Well that was a lie. He knew exactly why he had kissed him. “I’m sorry!”

Shiro looked at him surprised and – he had no idea. Angry? Upset? Shiro opened his mouth and closed it, without saying a word. He obviously struggled to find words. Oh dear, how upset would he feel right now, wouldn’t he? He just opened up to Curtis and Curtis immediately took advantage of it!

He stumbled over to the door, too embarrassed to even look at Shiro anymore. He had to get out, immediately!

“Curtis, the door!”  
Shiro’s warning came to late when Curtis hit his head frontally against the stupid sliding door that would not open fast enough.   
It did not slow him down though, nothing could stop him from running away. Not even when he faintly heard Shiro’s voice calling for him. “Curtis, wait!”

He did not stop until he reached his own room fully prepared to hide under his blanket for the rest of his life on the Atlas. Hopefully the blow to his head made him forget what he had just done. If only he had been hit on the head before that kiss, then he could at least blame that for his idiocy. Nope, he was definitely done. And his only choice was to hide from the world.

 

At least until the next morning.   
He had barely slept that night – too afraid that the captain would fire him over text and too excited because the feeling of Shiro's lips on his was still so present. His phone stayed silent though. Of course he would fire him in person. Maybe he could avoid Shiro as long as possible – and hit the gym early in the morning knowing that Shiro surely wouldn’t be there. And maybe Shiro wouldn’t talk about it on the bridge when others were around. Maybe he could just avoid seeing Shiro alone until they would get back on earth. And then he would run away as far as possible.

“The captain wants to see you, commander.” Curtis had not changed into his training clothes yet, when Ryan gave him the bad news.  
“Uhm… he said that?” Curtis tried not to sound too worried.  
“Yeah, I just met him”, Ryan said, fastening his shoes, “He asked me if I could tell you to drop by his office before you hit the gym.”

Well, that was not good. No avoiding or running away. “Thank you.” He had no choice, he had to face him right away. At least he could really hide in his bed until they would be back on earth then. 

The halls were empty when he shamefully approached Shiro’s office. It didn’t seem like anyone knew about their kiss yet, Ryan seemed totally normal and he had not received a disappointing text by Veronica yet. So maybe Shiro hadn’t told anyone yet?

The door was open.   
Shiro was waiting for him.  
“Sir, you… you wanted to see me.”  
“Good morning, Curtis. Would you mind closing the door?”

“Sure”, Curtis closed the door, but stayed right there. There was no reason to sit down, this would be over quickly.

“Uh, I don’t know where to start”, Shiro said, insecurely scratching the back of his head.  
“But I do. Sir, I know that there is no excuse for what I did yesterday. I am so sorry. I do not know why I… why I couldn’t…” 

“No, wait”, Shiro begged, “I am sorry. I think there was some kind of misunderstanding.”  
“I know.”  
“No, you don’t”, Shiro sighed.

Curtis sighed as well.  
“I’m not good with words”, Shiro eventually admitted, “And I am not good at flirting.”  
“Flirting?”

Shiro slowly nodded, “See… I thought it was a sign that you showed up at the gym yesterday evening. I have wanted to talk to you privately for quite some time, but somehow the timing was never right. Then Veronica left and I quietly asked the MFEs to also leave us alone…”  
“You… you asked them?” It wasn’t Veronica?  
“Yes. I thought it would be easier to get to know you if it was just the two of us. Or even try to flirt a little bit with you – see if you were maybe interested in me as well.”

Curtis stared at him, speechlessly.

Shiro slowly got up from his chair, “I thought it was going quite well – I hadn’t used my best pick up lines yet, but it seemed to be going really well – and then you kissed me all of a sudden. I was really surprised.”  
“Surprised? Not angry or upset?”  
“Not at all”, Shiro smiled shyly, “Actually I was just going to ask you if you would go swimming with me – either to save me or at least to take a photo of me in the ring buoy, but then the kiss happened.”  
Curtis dropped his gaze.   
“And you ran away. Before I could ask you.”

Shiro came closer.  
“So… what do you say?”

“Hu?”  
“Swimming. You, me, the ring buoy, the pool?”

Curtis stared at him. “Sir, please, let me get this straight. You really called me here, because you wanted to ask me if we would go swimming together because you couldn’t ask me yesterday after I had kissed you?”  
“Why did you think I called you here?”  
“I thought you would fire me!”

Shiro laughed so cutely, “What? No! Definitely not.” Both looked at each other, flustered. Curtis first had to realize what Shiro had just said and Shiro had to gather his nerves again.

Curtis eventually nodded, “Okay, so… to answer your question, sir. I would love to go swimming with you.”  
“Good.”

Shiro hesitated, “There is one more thing though. I suppose you wanted to go to the gym right now, didn’t you?”  
“Yes.”  
“Luckily I met Ryan so that I could tell him to come here before you were starting your workout. You think I could persuade you to go and have breakfast with me now and join me at the gym tonight instead?”   
Curtis smiled. This was so crazy. Shiro did not only forgive him for the kiss, but also wanted to spend more time with him. “I think you could.”

Shiro grinned brightly. He was about to open the door, when Curtis put his hand on Shiro’s to stop him, “One moment, please.”  
“Hmm?”  
“Even though this whole situation has taken this unexpected but very pleasant turn, I would like to apologize again, sir.”  
“Why?”  
“I kissed you without your permission and this was not okay. I am sorry I haven’t asked first.”

A faint blush crept on Shiro’s cheeks, “You know, you could ask me now.”  
“Now?”  
“Now.”

Shiro came closer. His hand left the door handle, but instead gently got a hold of Curtis’ hand. They were just millimetres apart.  
“May I kiss you?” Curtis whispered softly.  
“You may.”  
Their lips met again. And this time there was no panic, just the sheer pleasure of kissing Shiro.


End file.
